LOOMIS — Oakmont High had a long-range response for every run Del Oro assembled Friday night.
Alex Ford and Tony Gill each sank five of the Vikings’ 11 3-pointers and Oakmont delivered a crushing blow to the Golden Eagles’ Sierra Foothill League title hopes, 72-65.
“Those guys couldn’t miss,” Del Oro forward Jon Root said. “It was so frustrating. No matter what we did they always had an answer for it. You’d get your hopes up, but then they couldn’t miss.”
Del Oro dropped to 13-8 overall and 4-4 in the SFL with four games left as the Vikings (17-5, 7-2 SFL) surged into first place.
Oakmont stretched its lead to 60-42 with 6:24 left in the game after Gill hit his third straight 3-pointer in a two-minute span, part of a 16-3 run.
The Eagles answered with a 19-5 spurt to rally back to within four points on Root’s 3-pointer with 56 seconds remaining, but Oakmont made five of six free throws down the stretch to ice the win and sweep the season series.
Ford scored at will, finishing with a game-high 27 points.
“I don’t think Ford missed a shot all night,” Del Oro head coach Geoff Broyles said. “We wanted to stop the ball and then hope they don’t hit the three, but they hit 11 of them on us. That’s hard to beat.”
Gill added 24 points and nine rebounds, spoiling a 25-point effort by Aaron Hendricks.
The Del Oro guard finished with a game-high six 3-pointers, two of which helped the Eagles take an early 8-1 lead before the Vikings went ahead for good, 21-18, on a Ford trey early in the second quarter.
“We were confident even after the way it started,” Ford said. “We knew we had it. When my shot is on, I can feel it from the start.”
J.T. Adenrele dominated the paint for Oakmont, finishing with 15 rebounds, six blocks and six points.
Spencer Butterfield was instrumental in Del Oro’s late run and finished with 16 points for the Eagles, who travel to lowly Roseville on Wednesday night.
“We still have high hopes,” Root said. “First place is kind of a little bit out of reach, but we still have games and we’ll play hard the rest of the way. We still have playoffs coming up, and we’re going to try to get a high seed. We still have a lot on the line.”
Del Oro won the JV game 52-37.